As everyone knows, and as Lawnmower Deth sang, a good old-fashioned English cricket bat, measured in proper English feet and inches is the de facto standard and benchmark instrument for dealing out a good spanking. Just ask any public schoolboy and Tory MP.
There is an element of truth in what you're ssaying, but I sat my technophobic wife down in front of GNOME 2.4 a fortnight ago and she's got the hang of it. Although she's been using Windows for years, she doesn't like it much and hasn't really learned much about it.
Linux nowadays with a friendly GUI like KDE or GNOME is easy to use, provided you don't have too many preconceived ideas about what a GUI "should do" (i.e. be hardwired to using Windows).
Installation is still fairly tricky, but istalling any OS is tricky unless you are quite knowlegeable about computers. (PeeCees used to come with instruction manuals back in my day). The thing about Linux is you generally only have to install it once. I only reinstall when a new Slackware comes out or I get a new hard disk.
Now, if you've ever tried KNOPPIX, that's how easy a Linux can be to set up: just hit when it says boot:
It all "just works" even on my home-made Frankenstein PeeCees.
What it comes down to is that if you want the best of everything you are going to end up with a mix of both free open source and proprietary closed source software. I even think that there is a word for that... It's called pragmaticism or something.
It's called pragmatism.
I was just trying to make the point that if you're too tight to pay for legitimate copies of commercial software, you can get legitimate copies of Free sofware for nothing, or as near to nothing as makes no difference.
Yes still people blind themselves to the options, usually because "if it's free it must be rubbish."
I'm not an artist and I have never used Photoshop. I am also a pragmatist, but I try very hard not to be a thief or to break the terms of other peoples' software licenses, and I hope they respect the terms under which my own work is licensed too. That's called being a responsible member of society, something which often gets neglected in this "me first" world.
Here in Blighty we're still having trouble using that "filthy foreign (French) metric system."
I started primary school in 1979. Everything we were taught was in metric, and all the secondary school science, maths and technology was taught in metric/SI.
However, society (our parents, grandparents, shops, businesses) were all still dogmatically sticking to Imperial measurements (almost identical to the US "English" system - anyone know why they diverged?).
The result is that my generation (and half a generation before) are fluent in one and partially in the other. In my late teens I began to get a feel for feet, inches, pounds, stone, pints (beer!!!!), miles etc.
Only, a couple of years later the government made it illegal to sell goods in Imperial.
So, now you go to the supermarket and buy 568ml of milk (a pint). You buy 454g of carrots (a pound/lb). However, you're still allowed to be sold beer by the pint, and a 500ml can of beer just doesn't quite quench the thirst:-)
So now, I think in both sets of units as and when appropriate. It was just as well I learned because when I was 21 I went to work in a power station designed in the late 50's. It was all built in feet and inches, tons and BTUs.
Give me metres, kilogrammes and Joules (and Watts) any day...
In the particular case to which I was referring, the people in volved were professional engineers in their mid-20s and above with university degrees. Even amonst such intelligent and educated people there was a complete lack of willingness to try anything new. After all, "it's free so it must be crap."
What really annoys me is that fact that there are millions of morons out there who will "pirate" commercial software (and especially dog crap like Windows) when they could legitimately obtain free or open source software that's just as good or better for the same or less money and effort.
How many times have you seen people selling CDs of "cracked" software for $25 and getting away with it?
"Don't spend your money on illegal software," you say, have this it's free. But no, they'd rather break the law, further entrench the monoculture and spread viruses.
You report stuff to FAST and what happens? Nothing.
As a matter of interest, why are you posting anonymously?
I'd rather not live in a Theocracy, Muslim or otherwise. There: I've nailed my colours to the mast.
Although it's fair that people should be allowed to believe what they like, it saddens me when people would impose their narrow-minded beliefs on everyone under the misapprehension that they know some great and profund Truth that no one else has understood yet.
I hope that we don't lose our tolerance of other cultures and beliefs but I also hope that we maintain these freedoms which we have fought to have ourselves, and to give others the opportunity to live under such freedoms.
I pity the people forced to conform to a system with which they have no sympathy, and it disturbs me that people should dictate to others in this way. However, if people want to submit themselves willingly, who are we to argue? How do you distinguish and where do you draw the line? Whose job is it to enforce freedom? Whose job is it to decide who is free and who is a slave? At what point does the ability to intervene over national boundaries become a duty? What role to national boundaries play in the modern world anyway?
Why do we fear open criticism, my AC friend?
When is a joke a joke and when does it become offensive? Who are they who can not laugh at themselves?
There are all kinds of "extreme" things in all great religious texts, however most people don't carry things out to the letter. I dare say most Muslims are as reasonable as the next man, it's just a very small, fanatical minority that are the problem, as in any large organisation.
You think someone else won't step forward to fill the void when he's gone?
I doubt it. Like all the great demented madman of history, Osama's pretty unique. Think of Hitler. No one took the reigns when he killed himself, or at least they didn't try to contiune in the same way.
No, I think Osama's little movement will fizzle out with him.
As for terrorism in general, he's not the only terrorist at the moment. There are (or have been) plenty of Christian terrorists in Northern and Southern Ireland for many years, for example. In mainland Europe they have other terrorists as well.
...and Osama won't live forever either. Hopefully Uncle Sam will help him get to heaven sooner rather than later and the rest of us can get on with living our lives.
In the days of yore, CPUs were too slow to do the kind of 3D that gamers wanted, so GPUs were developed (actually they were developed 10+ years earlier by the likes of SGI(RIP) for CAD and scientific visualisation).
Then there is a quantum change in CPU design, and CPUs catch up with GPUs (at least on paper). The someone finds out something new and cool they can do by pushing these CPUs to the limit, but only just. Then, the scientists and engineers decide it's useful and someone makes expensive dedicated hardware. Then the games find out about it and buy less expensive but $1000 hardware. Them there is a period of frenzied competition and it comes down to $100.
Then, someone goes and thinks of something new and cool to do with this cheap high-powered hardware....
I kind of assumed that nowadays all the boards were the same other than the brand name on the box. I thought they were all made by either nVidia or ATI and rebadged, and then shipped with different free games and cables and mousemats. Obviously I was wrong, which I freely admit to, since I am not perfect unlike the whinging prima donnas and know-alls around here.
My question still stands: which "brands" are good and which are "bad"? Or are you too chicken to say in case you get sued?
(disclaimer: I'm a "1985 cycle counting programmer")
Then you might appreciate Math Toolkit for Real-Time Programming by Crenshaw. I'm no expert, but I bought it and it's an entertaining, if not informative, read.
In my day we had 8-bit machines with approximately 40k useable RAM. We had to load our programs from audio cassette tapes (remember them?) at a rate of maybe a thousand bits per second. It often took many minutes to load a program that was 32k in size. My machine had 128k RAM. It still used tapes for loading games. Starglider 128 used to take 15 minutes to load. You could buy a disk drive, but none of the commercial software worked with it. I sometimes get impatient with my dual processor 64-bit workstation, but it is 4 years old now (450MHz processors), and modern software just keeps on getting bigger, and more of it's written in C++ which is dreadful for start-up times.
You realize your problem was the "no-name" part and not that it was a GF4mx, right?
Yes, I am not as green as I'm cabbage-looking.
However, this alerted me as to the wide difference in quality between graphics cards. Often nowadays in reviews there is little on the crispness of the display and much on the Doom 3/UT etc. framerate.
Unless I just stick to Creative Labs (assuming that every single one of their products is a good as the TNT2 Ultra I bought over 4 years ago : false premise) what should I buy?
There are lots of new "names" on the market now e.g. ASUSm MSI, Leadtek, Sparkle, XFX etc. Price isn't always a guide either. People often put a high price on rubbish to make it look good to the ignorant buyer.
A word is a label for a thing. What I'm trying to say is: it the gender of the label (the word) or the gender of the thing (to which the word refers). My example in this case was Maedchen since obviously a girl is femal (the thing to which the word refers) but the word (the label) is neuter.
Ah but... is it the gender of the word, or the gender of the thing to which the word refers? Is there such a rule in German?
For example the word for girl in German is das Maedchen which is neuter, because of the "chen" on the end of the word IIRC. Well, that's what they taught me at school.
Also, in German, "der See" is "the lake" while "die See" is "the sea."
Really? I thought it was about druid who used to hack to death young ladys to make sure that the sun came up again after the winter solstice. Maybe I heard wrong. A mad wiccan told me that. He was as mad as a hatter.
Why do you suppose Stonehenge is about superstition.
Maybe it's because there people, like many other primitive cultures, used to think daft things like you have to sacrifice people and animals to make the sun come up again at certain times of year etc?
Superstition still goes on and is condoned (and even celebrated) to this day and in Western culture, which is supposedly "advanced". I need not spell out what for fear of lynching.
Slashdot Mirror
As everyone knows, and as Lawnmower Deth sang, a good old-fashioned English cricket bat, measured in proper English feet and inches is the de facto standard and benchmark instrument for dealing out a good spanking. Just ask any public schoolboy and Tory MP.
Linux nowadays with a friendly GUI like KDE or GNOME is easy to use, provided you don't have too many preconceived ideas about what a GUI "should do" (i.e. be hardwired to using Windows).
Installation is still fairly tricky, but istalling any OS is tricky unless you are quite knowlegeable about computers. (PeeCees used to come with instruction manuals back in my day). The thing about Linux is you generally only have to install it once. I only reinstall when a new Slackware comes out or I get a new hard disk.
Now, if you've ever tried KNOPPIX, that's how easy a Linux can be to set up: just hit when it says boot:
It all "just works" even on my home-made Frankenstein PeeCees.
It's called pragmatism.
I was just trying to make the point that if you're too tight to pay for legitimate copies of commercial software, you can get legitimate copies of Free sofware for nothing, or as near to nothing as makes no difference.
Yes still people blind themselves to the options, usually because "if it's free it must be rubbish."
I'm not an artist and I have never used Photoshop. I am also a pragmatist, but I try very hard not to be a thief or to break the terms of other peoples' software licenses, and I hope they respect the terms under which my own work is licensed too. That's called being a responsible member of society, something which often gets neglected in this "me first" world.
Now get back under your bridge, Troll.
I started primary school in 1979. Everything we were taught was in metric, and all the secondary school science, maths and technology was taught in metric/SI.
However, society (our parents, grandparents, shops, businesses) were all still dogmatically sticking to Imperial measurements (almost identical to the US "English" system - anyone know why they diverged?).
The result is that my generation (and half a generation before) are fluent in one and partially in the other. In my late teens I began to get a feel for feet, inches, pounds, stone, pints (beer!!!!), miles etc.
Only, a couple of years later the government made it illegal to sell goods in Imperial.
So, now you go to the supermarket and buy 568ml of milk (a pint). You buy 454g of carrots (a pound/lb). However, you're still allowed to be sold beer by the pint, and a 500ml can of beer just doesn't quite quench the thirst :-)
So now, I think in both sets of units as and when appropriate. It was just as well I learned because when I was 21 I went to work in a power station designed in the late 50's. It was all built in feet and inches, tons and BTUs.
Give me metres, kilogrammes and Joules (and Watts) any day...
In the particular case to which I was referring, the people in volved were professional engineers in their mid-20s and above with university degrees. Even amonst such intelligent and educated people there was a complete lack of willingness to try anything new. After all, "it's free so it must be crap."
How many times have you seen people selling CDs of "cracked" software for $25 and getting away with it?
"Don't spend your money on illegal software," you say, have this it's free. But no, they'd rather break the law, further entrench the monoculture and spread viruses.
You report stuff to FAST and what happens? Nothing.
I'd rather not live in a Theocracy, Muslim or otherwise. There: I've nailed my colours to the mast.
Although it's fair that people should be allowed to believe what they like, it saddens me when people would impose their narrow-minded beliefs on everyone under the misapprehension that they know some great and profund Truth that no one else has understood yet.
I hope that we don't lose our tolerance of other cultures and beliefs but I also hope that we maintain these freedoms which we have fought to have ourselves, and to give others the opportunity to live under such freedoms.
I pity the people forced to conform to a system with which they have no sympathy, and it disturbs me that people should dictate to others in this way. However, if people want to submit themselves willingly, who are we to argue? How do you distinguish and where do you draw the line? Whose job is it to enforce freedom? Whose job is it to decide who is free and who is a slave? At what point does the ability to intervene over national boundaries become a duty? What role to national boundaries play in the modern world anyway?
Why do we fear open criticism, my AC friend?
When is a joke a joke and when does it become offensive? Who are they who can not laugh at themselves?
There are all kinds of "extreme" things in all great religious texts, however most people don't carry things out to the letter. I dare say most Muslims are as reasonable as the next man, it's just a very small, fanatical minority that are the problem, as in any large organisation.
I doubt it. Like all the great demented madman of history, Osama's pretty unique. Think of Hitler. No one took the reigns when he killed himself, or at least they didn't try to contiune in the same way.
No, I think Osama's little movement will fizzle out with him.
As for terrorism in general, he's not the only terrorist at the moment. There are (or have been) plenty of Christian terrorists in Northern and Southern Ireland for many years, for example. In mainland Europe they have other terrorists as well.
...and Osama won't live forever either. Hopefully Uncle Sam will help him get to heaven sooner rather than later and the rest of us can get on with living our lives.
Then there is a quantum change in CPU design, and CPUs catch up with GPUs (at least on paper). The someone finds out something new and cool they can do by pushing these CPUs to the limit, but only just. Then, the scientists and engineers decide it's useful and someone makes expensive dedicated hardware. Then the games find out about it and buy less expensive but $1000 hardware. Them there is a period of frenzied competition and it comes down to $100.
Then, someone goes and thinks of something new and cool to do with this cheap high-powered hardware....
Mind you, I can't wait until these dual core Opterons come out. I feel an 8-way workstation coming on....better start saving my pocket money :-)
Now all we need is an Opteron port of Slackware.
My question still stands: which "brands" are good and which are "bad"? Or are you too chicken to say in case you get sued?
Then you might appreciate Math Toolkit for Real-Time Programming by Crenshaw. I'm no expert, but I bought it and it's an entertaining, if not informative, read.
Really? I must learn Java properly some time. I just assumed it must have one.
Argh! It's FORTRAN written in Java! Quick, sprinkle the Holy Water...
What does the output filter do?
In my day we had 8-bit machines with approximately 40k useable RAM. We had to load our programs from audio cassette tapes (remember them?) at a rate of maybe a thousand bits per second. It often took many minutes to load a program that was 32k in size. My machine had 128k RAM. It still used tapes for loading games. Starglider 128 used to take 15 minutes to load. You could buy a disk drive, but none of the commercial software worked with it. I sometimes get impatient with my dual processor 64-bit workstation, but it is 4 years old now (450MHz processors), and modern software just keeps on getting bigger, and more of it's written in C++ which is dreadful for start-up times.
Reliable and accountable support?
Yes, I am not as green as I'm cabbage-looking.
However, this alerted me as to the wide difference in quality between graphics cards. Often nowadays in reviews there is little on the crispness of the display and much on the Doom 3/UT etc. framerate.
Unless I just stick to Creative Labs (assuming that every single one of their products is a good as the TNT2 Ultra I bought over 4 years ago : false premise) what should I buy?
There are lots of new "names" on the market now e.g. ASUSm MSI, Leadtek, Sparkle, XFX etc. Price isn't always a guide either. People often put a high price on rubbish to make it look good to the ignorant buyer.
A word is a label for a thing. What I'm trying to say is: it the gender of the label (the word) or the gender of the thing (to which the word refers). My example in this case was Maedchen since obviously a girl is femal (the thing to which the word refers) but the word (the label) is neuter.
Thanks.
For example the word for girl in German is das Maedchen which is neuter, because of the "chen" on the end of the word IIRC. Well, that's what they taught me at school.
Also, in German, "der See" is "the lake" while "die See" is "the sea."
But what do I know, I'm only Jockanese.
Really? I thought it was about druid who used to hack to death young ladys to make sure that the sun came up again after the winter solstice. Maybe I heard wrong. A mad wiccan told me that. He was as mad as a hatter.
Maybe it's because there people, like many other primitive cultures, used to think daft things like you have to sacrifice people and animals to make the sun come up again at certain times of year etc?
Superstition still goes on and is condoned (and even celebrated) to this day and in Western culture, which is supposedly "advanced". I need not spell out what for fear of lynching.